Facilitation of radio access neighbor relationships for 5G or other next generation network

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/810,150, filed Jun. 30, 2022, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/103,040, filed Nov. 24, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,412,444. All sections of the aforementioned application(s) and/or patent(s) are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

This disclosure relates generally to facilitating of radio access neighbor relationships. For example, this disclosure relates to facilitating radio access neighbor relationships for a 5G, or other next generation network, air interface.

5th generation (5G) wireless systems represent a next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the current telecommunications standards of 4generation (4G). Rather than faster peak Internet connection speeds, 5G planning aims at higher capacity than current 4G, allowing a higher number of mobile broadband users per area unit, and allowing consumption of higher or unlimited data quantities. This would enable a large portion of the population to stream high-definition media many hours per day with their mobile devices, when out of reach of wireless fidelity hotspots. 5G research and development also aims at improved support of machine-to-machine communication, also known as the Internet of things, aiming at lower cost, lower battery consumption, and lower latency than 4G equipment.

The above-described background relating to facilitating radio access neighbor relationships is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues, and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the techniques described herein can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring certain aspects.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” or “an embodiment,” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment,” “in one aspect,” or “in an embodiment,” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

As utilized herein, terms “component,” “system,” “interface,” and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, hardware, software (e.g., in execution), and/or firmware. For example, a component can be a processor, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a program, a storage device, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.

Further, these components can execute from various machine-readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components can communicate via local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network, e.g., the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, etc. with other systems via the signal).

As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specific functionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric or electronic circuitry; the electric or electronic circuitry can be operated by a software application or a firmware application executed by one or more processors; the one or more processors can be internal or external to the apparatus and can execute at least a part of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component can be an apparatus that provides specific functionality through electronic components without mechanical parts; the electronic components can include one or more processors therein to execute software and/or firmware that confer(s), at least in part, the functionality of the electronic components. In an aspect, a component can emulate an electronic component via a virtual machine, e.g., within a cloud computing system.

The words “exemplary” and/or “demonstrative” are used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. For the avoidance of doubt, the subject matter disclosed herein is not limited by such examples. In addition, any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” and/or “demonstrative” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs, nor is it meant to preclude equivalent exemplary structures and techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “includes,” “has,” “contains,” and other similar words are used in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive—in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as an open transition word-without precluding any additional or other elements.

As used herein, the term “infer” or “inference” refers generally to the process of reasoning about, or inferring states of, the system, environment, user, and/or intent from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Captured data and events can include user data, device data, environment data, data from sensors, sensor data, application data, implicit data, explicit data, etc. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events, for example.

Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources. Various classification schemes and/or systems (e.g., support vector machines, neural networks, expert systems, Bayesian belief networks, fuzzy logic, and data fusion engines) can be employed in connection with performing automatic and/or inferred action in connection with the disclosed subject matter.

In addition, the disclosed subject matter can be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosed subject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, machine-readable device, computer-readable carrier, computer-readable media, or machine-readable media. For example, computer-readable media can include, but are not limited to, a magnetic storage device, e.g., hard disk; floppy disk; magnetic strip(s); an optical disk (e.g., compact disk (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), a Blu-ray Disc™ (BD)); a smart card; a flash memory device (e.g., card, stick, key drive); and/or a virtual device that emulates a storage device and/or any of the above computer-readable media.

As an overview, various embodiments are described herein to facilitate radio access neighbor relationships for a 5G air interface or other next generation networks. For simplicity of explanation, the methods are depicted and described as a series of acts. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various embodiments are not limited by the acts illustrated and/or by the order of acts. For example, acts can occur in various orders and/or concurrently, and with other acts not presented or described herein. Furthermore, not all illustrated acts may be desired to implement the methods. In addition, the methods could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states via a state diagram or events. Additionally, the methods described hereafter are capable of being stored on an article of manufacture (e.g., a machine-readable medium) to facilitate transporting and transferring such methodologies to computers. The term article of manufacture, as used herein, is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media, including a non-transitory machine-readable medium.

It should be noted that although various aspects and embodiments have been described herein in the context of 5G, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and/or Long Term Evolution (LTE), or other next generation networks, the disclosed aspects are not limited to 5G, a UMTS implementation, and/or an LTE implementation as the techniques can also be applied in 3G, 4G or LTE systems. For example, aspects or features of the disclosed embodiments can be exploited in substantially any wireless communication technology. Such wireless communication technologies can include UMTS, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wi-Fi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced GPRS, Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), LTE, Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+), High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), Zigbee, or another IEEE 802.12 technology. Additionally, substantially all aspects disclosed herein can be exploited in legacy telecommunication technologies.

Described herein are systems, methods, articles of manufacture, and other embodiments or implementations that can facilitate radio access neighbor relationships for a 5G network. Facilitating radio access neighbor relationships for a 5G network can be implemented in connection with any type of device with a connection to the communications network (e.g., a mobile handset, a computer, a handheld device, etc.) any Internet of things (IOT) device (e.g., toaster, coffee maker, blinds, music players, speakers, etc.), and/or any connected vehicles (cars, airplanes, space rockets, and/or other at least partially automated vehicles (e.g., drones)). In some embodiments the non-limiting term user equipment (UE) is used. It can refer to any type of wireless device that communicates with a radio network node in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, machine type UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, PDA, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, IOT device, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, etc. The embodiments are applicable to single carrier as well as to multicarrier (MC) or carrier aggregation (CA) operation of the UE. The term carrier aggregation (CA) is also called (e.g. interchangeably called) “multi-carrier system”, “multi-cell operation”, “multi-carrier operation”, “multi-carrier” transmission and/or reception.

In some embodiments, the non-limiting term radio network node or simply network node is used. It can refer to any type of network node that serves a UE or network equipment connected to other network nodes or network elements or any radio node from where UE receives a signal. Non-exhaustive examples of radio network nodes are Node B, base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) node such as MSR BS, eNode B, gNode B, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), edge nodes, edge servers, network access equipment, network access nodes, a connection point to a telecommunications network, such as an access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), etc.

Cloud radio access networks (RAN) can enable the implementation of concepts such as software-defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) in 5G networks. This disclosure can facilitate a generic channel state information framework design for a 5G network. Certain embodiments of this disclosure can include an SDN controller that can control routing of traffic within the network and between the network and traffic destinations. The SDN controller can be merged with the 5G network architecture to enable service deliveries via open application programming interfaces (“APIs”) and move the network core towards an all internet protocol (“IP”), cloud based, and software driven telecommunications network. The SDN controller can work with, or take the place of policy and charging rules function (“PCRF”) network elements so that policies such as quality of service and traffic management and routing can be synchronized and managed end to end.

5G, also called new radio (NR) access, networks can support the following: data rates of several tens of megabits per second supported for tens of thousands of users; 1 gigabit per second can be offered simultaneously to tens of workers on the same office floor; several hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections can be supported for massive sensor deployments; spectral efficiency can be enhanced compared to 4G; improved coverage; enhanced signaling efficiency; and reduced latency compared to LTE. In multicarrier systems such as OFDM, each subcarrier can occupy bandwidth (e.g., subcarrier spacing). If the carriers use the same bandwidth spacing, then it can be considered a single numerology. However, if the carriers occupy different bandwidth and/or spacing, then it can be considered a multiple numerology.

A radio access network intelligent controller (RIC) can allow a global view of a radio access network (RAN) and can provide intelligent control and optimization. Although there is a physical relationship between eNodeBs and gNodeBs, a slicing concept can be applied to the physical relationships based on services provided by various cells. The automatic neighbor relationship (ANR) can include information about which neighbors have various slicing capabilities.

An ANR micro-service can be added to the RIC. The ANR micro-service can comprise an ANR table that determines the slicing of the cells based on the slicing capabilities of the cells. Various xApps (e.g., types of software) can utilize an ANR-slicing capability (SC) to perform mobility enhancement functions (e.g., load balancing, handover, proactive mobility handover, etc.) The various slicing capabilities can comprise: URLLC, massive IoT, medium bandwidth throughput, high bandwidth throughput, vehicle to everything, voice over NR, etc. Cells can be split on different slices, depending upon their capabilities, to support different services. For example, some cells can be placed on an ultra-reliable low latency service slice and other cells can be placed on a high throughput service slice.

An abstraction layer can separate the physical radios and logical view of the radio network. Thus, various radio resources from various radio technologies can be utilized. Network slices can be created to address specific needs of service calls, or transport, or access capability. Thus, the access network can be divided by slices to separately address multiple needs. The slice of an access layer can be vertical or horizontal and can manage a defined number of radios with various frequencies and various capabilities. For example, an access slice can comprise a resource management function, a radio control function, and other capabilities to aid a specific function. The resource management function can determine, for the radio controller function, how many resources it needs, which can depend on what type of service it is using.

Network slicing capabilities can enable edge computing for microservices to be provided directly to an end user. By utilizing a dedicated slice, existing network resources and other available resources can be enabled to service UEs. The network slice can also be dedicated for a specific network function (e.g., extended reality, augmented reality, and/or virtual reality) to manage and allocate network resources.

ANR can be implemented inside the RIC which receives the load info from eNBs and gNBs, as well as the UE measurements, which the RIC can create and maintain with real-time load info to facilitate further intelligent mobility management and optimization. Without slicing knowledge of neighbor cells during mobility, the slice-based service may get interrupted or is not consistent. This disclosure proposes an enhanced RAN neighbor relationship with a slicing capability (ANR-SC) xApp which can provide slice level RAN neighbor visibility on top of physical ANR relationships to enable enhancements to mobility management optimization via slice and RAN capability-based mobility management for 5G and beyond.

In one embodiment, described herein is a method comprising receiving, by network equipment comprising a processor, cell data representative of a neighbor relationship between a first network cell and a second network cell. The method can comprise receiving, by the network equipment, first capability data representative of a first capability of the first network cell, and second capability data representative of a second capability of the second network cell. The method can comprise determining, by the network equipment, a difference between the first capability and the second capability. Additionally, based on the difference, the method can comprise splitting, by the network equipment, the first network cell and the second network cell onto a first network slice and a second network slice, respectively. Furthermore, in response to receiving resource request data representative of a resource requested from a user equipment, the method can comprise allocating, by the network equipment, the resource from the first network cell to the user equipment based on the first capability.

According to another embodiment, a system can facilitate receiving first capability data representative of a first capability of the first network cell, and receiving second capability data representative of a second capability of the second network cell after determining a neighbor relationship between a first network cell and a second network cell. Based on determining that the first capability is different than the second capability, the system can comprise allocating a first network slice, to the first network cell, that is different than a second network slice allocated to the second network cell. Additionally, in response to receiving resource request data representative of a resource requested from a user equipment, the system can facilitate allocating a resource of the first network cell to the user equipment based on the first capability.

According to yet another embodiment, described herein is a machine-readable medium that can perform the operations comprising receiving neighbor relationship data representative of a neighbor relationship between a first network cell and a second network cell. The machine-readable medium can perform the operations comprising receiving neighbor relationship data representative of a neighbor relationship between a first network cell and a second network cell. The machine-readable medium can perform the operations comprising receiving first capability data representative of a first capability of the first network cell. The machine-readable medium can perform the operations comprising receiving second capability data representative of a second capability of the second network cell. In response to receiving the neighbor relationship data, the machine-readable medium can perform the operations comprising the first capability data and the second capability data, determining that the first capability is different than the second capability. Based on the determining that the first capability is different than the second capability, the machine-readable medium can perform the operations comprising allocating a first network slice, to the first network cell, that is different than a second network slice allocated to the second network cell. Furthermore, in response to receiving resource request data representative of a resource requested from a user equipment, the machine-readable medium can perform the operations comprising allocating a resource of the first network cell to the user equipment based on the first capability.

These and other embodiments or implementations are described in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

Referring now to, illustrated is an example wireless communication systemin accordance with various aspects and embodiments of the subject disclosure. In one or more embodiments, systemcan include one or more user equipment UEs. The non-limiting term user equipment can refer to any type of device that can communicate with a network node in a cellular or mobile communication system. A UE can have one or more antenna panels having vertical and horizontal elements. Examples of a UE include a target device, device to device (D2D) UE, machine type UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communications, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop mounted equipment (LME), universal serial bus (USB) dongles enabled for mobile communications, a computer having mobile capabilities, a mobile device such as cellular phone, a laptop having laptop embedded equipment (LEE, such as a mobile broadband adapter), a tablet computer having a mobile broadband adapter, a wearable device, a virtual reality (VR) device, a heads-up display (HUD) device, a smart car, a machine-type communication (MTC) device, and the like. User equipment UEcan also include IOT devices that communicate wirelessly.

In various embodiments, systemis or includes a wireless communication network serviced by one or more wireless communication network providers. In example embodiments, a UEcan be communicatively coupled to the wireless communication network via a network node. The network node (e.g., network node device) can communicate with user equipment (UE), thus providing connectivity between the UE and the wider cellular network. The UEcan send transmission type recommendation data to the network node. The transmission type recommendation data can include a recommendation to transmit data via a closed loop MIMO mode and/or a rank-1 precoder mode.

A network node can have a cabinet and other protected enclosures, an antenna mast, and multiple antennas for performing various transmission operations (e.g., MIMO operations). Network nodes can serve several cells, also called sectors, depending on the configuration and type of antenna. In example embodiments, the UEcan send and/or receive communication data via a wireless link to the network node. The dashed arrow lines from the network nodeto the UErepresent downlink (DL) communications and the solid arrow lines from the UEto the network nodesrepresents an uplink (UL) communication.

Systemcan further include one or more communication service provider networksthat facilitate providing wireless communication services to various UEs, including UE, via the network nodeand/or various additional network devices (not shown) included in the one or more communication service provider networks. The one or more communication service provider networkscan include various types of disparate networks, including but not limited to: cellular networks, femto networks, picocell networks, microcell networks, internet protocol (IP) networks Wi-Fi service networks, broadband service network, enterprise networks, cloud based networks, and the like. For example, in at least one implementation, systemcan be or include a large scale wireless communication network that spans various geographic areas. According to this implementation, the one or more communication service provider networkscan be or include the wireless communication network and/or various additional devices and components of the wireless communication network (e.g., additional network devices and cell, additional UEs, network server devices, etc.). The network nodecan be connected to the one or more communication service provider networksvia one or more backhaul links. For example, the one or more backhaul linkscan include wired link components, such as a T1/E1 phone line, a digital subscriber line (DSL) (e.g., either synchronous or asynchronous), an asymmetric DSL (ADSL), an optical fiber backbone, a coaxial cable, and the like. The one or more backhaul linkscan also include wireless link components, such as but not limited to, line-of-sight (LOS) or non-LOS links which can include terrestrial air-interfaces or deep space links (e.g., satellite communication links for navigation).

Wireless communication systemcan employ various cellular systems, technologies, and modulation modes to facilitate wireless radio communications between devices (e.g., the UEand the network node). While example embodiments might be described for 5G new radio (NR) systems, the embodiments can be applicable to any radio access technology (RAT) or multi-RAT system where the UE operates using multiple carriers e.g. LTE FDD/TDD, GSM/GERAN, CDMA2000 etc.

For example, systemcan operate in accordance with global system for mobile communications (GSM), universal mobile telecommunications service (UMTS), long term evolution (LTE), LTE frequency division duplexing (LTE FDD, LTE time division duplexing (TDD), high speed packet access (HSPA), code division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (WCMDA), CDMA2000, time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA), single-carrier code division multiple access (SC-CDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-spread OFDM) single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), Filter bank based multi-carrier (FBMC), zero tail DFT-spread-OFDM (ZT DFT-s-OFDM), generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), fixed mobile convergence (FMC), universal fixed mobile convergence (UFMC), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), unique word DFT-spread OFDM (UW DFT-Spread-OFDM), cyclic prefix OFDM CP-OFDM, resource-block-filtered OFDM, Wi Fi, WLAN, WiMax, and the like. However, various features and functionalities of systemare particularly described wherein the devices (e.g., the UEsand the network node) of systemare configured to communicate wireless signals using one or more multi carrier modulation schemes, wherein data symbols can be transmitted simultaneously over multiple frequency subcarriers (e.g., OFDM, CP-OFDM, DFT-spread OFMD, UFMC, FMBC, etc.). The embodiments are applicable to single carrier as well as to multicarrier (MC) or carrier aggregation (CA) operation of the UE. The term carrier aggregation (CA) is also called (e.g. interchangeably called) “multi-carrier system”, “multi-cell operation”, “multi-carrier operation”, “multi-carrier” transmission and/or reception. Note that some embodiments are also applicable for Multi RAB (radio bearers) on some carriers (that is data plus speech is simultaneously scheduled).

In various embodiments, systemcan be configured to provide and employ 5G wireless networking features and functionalities. 5G wireless communication networks are expected to fulfill the demand of exponentially increasing data traffic and to allow people and machines to enjoy gigabit data rates with virtually zero latency. Compared to 4G, 5G supports more diverse traffic scenarios. For example, in addition to the various types of data communication between conventional UEs (e.g., phones, smartphones, tablets, PCs, televisions, Internet enabled televisions, etc.) supported by 4G networks, 5G networks can be employed to support data communication between smart cars in association with driverless car environments, as well as machine type communications (MTCs). Considering the drastic different communication demands of these different traffic scenarios, the ability to dynamically configure waveform parameters based on traffic scenarios while retaining the benefits of multi carrier modulation schemes (e.g., OFDM and related schemes) can provide a significant contribution to the high speed/capacity and low latency demands of 5G networks. With waveforms that split the bandwidth into several sub-bands, different types of services can be accommodated in different sub-bands with the most suitable waveform and numerology, leading to an improved spectrum utilization for 5G networks.

To meet the demand for data centric applications, features of proposed 5G networks may include: increased peak bit rate (e.g., 20 Gbps), larger data volume per unit area (e.g., high system spectral efficiency—for example about 3.5 times that of spectral efficiency of long term evolution (LTE) systems), high capacity that allows more device connectivity both concurrently and instantaneously, lower battery/power consumption (which reduces energy and consumption costs), better connectivity regardless of the geographic region in which a user is located, a larger numbers of devices, lower infrastructural development costs, and higher reliability of the communications. Thus, 5G networks may allow for: data rates of several tens of megabits per second should be supported for tens of thousands of users, 1 gigabit per second to be offered simultaneously to tens of workers on the same office floor, for example; several hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections to be supported for massive sensor deployments; improved coverage, enhanced signaling efficiency; reduced latency compared to LTE.

The 5G access network may utilize higher frequencies (e.g., >6 GHz) to aid in increasing capacity. Currently, much of the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, the band of spectrum between 30 gigahertz (GHz) and 300 GHz is underutilized. The millimeter waves have shorter wavelengths that range from 10 millimeters to 1 millimeter, and these mmWave signals experience severe path loss, penetration loss, and fading. However, the shorter wavelength at mmWave frequencies also allows more antennas to be packed in the same physical dimension, which allows for large-scale spatial multiplexing and highly directional beamforming.

Performance can be improved if both the transmitter and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas. Multi-antenna techniques can significantly increase the data rates and reliability of a wireless communication system. The use of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques, which was introduced in the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) and has been in use (including with LTE), is a multi-antenna technique that can improve the spectral efficiency of transmissions, thereby significantly boosting the overall data carrying capacity of wireless systems. The use of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques can improve mmWave communications, and has been widely recognized a potentially important component for access networks operating in higher frequencies. MIMO can be used for achieving diversity gain, spatial multiplexing gain and beamforming gain. For these reasons, MIMO systems are an important part of the 3rd and 4th generation wireless systems, and are planned for use in 5G systems.

Referring now to, illustrated is an example schematic system block diagram of a neighbor cell relation table in one or more embodiments.

ANR can add or remove a neighbor relationship. Xn is the interface between gNodeBs. No remove means that the ANR shall not remove the relationship between gNode Bs. Within a gNode B there may be many cells (e.g., NCRs), and the target cell ID (TCI) is who the cell is serving. In addition to the traditional ANR table that can comprise the no remove, no handover, and Xn as basic info, additional columns can be added to the table. The additional columns can comprise a 5G NR-LTE direct connectivity preference, RAT (e.g., 5G or LTE) virtualized cell, gNB-centralized unit (CU) ID, gNB-distributed unit (DU) ID, etc. Because some cells may not be preferred for dual connectivity, the additional data can be added to the tableto help the systemto make more intelligent decisions.

The systemcan comprise an operations administration and management (OAM) componentthat can bi-directionally communicate with an ANR componentof a gNodeB (e.g., network node). For example, the ANR componentcan comprise a neighbor cell relation table (NCRT) management component, a neighbor removal component, and a neighbor detection component. The neighbor removal componentcan be configured to remove neighbor relations based on internal data (e.g., quality, location, virtualization, etc.) of the ANR componentand send neighbor removal data to the NCRT management component. Conversely, a neighbor detection componentcan detect neighbors based on data received (e.g., quality, location, virtualization, etc.) from a radio resource control (RRC) component. For example, the neighbor detection componentcan send management request data to the RRC componentand in return receive management report data from the RRC component. Based on the management report data, the neighbor detection componentcan then generate neighbor data and send the neighbor data to the NCRT management componentto facilitate the addition of a neighbor relationship. The OAM componentcan also add/update neighbor relationships at the NCRT management componentand receive reports from the NCRT management component. The NCRT management componentcan take data from the OAM component, the neighbor detection component, and/or the neighbor removal componentand generate data to send to the NCRTto update the NCRT.

Referring now to, illustrated is an example schematic system block diagram of a radio access network intelligent controller in one or more embodiments.

RICfunctions can be implemented by micro-services (e.g., ANR-SC, xApp, or the like). An enhanced RIC framework can comprise an ANR-SCand a network information base. The RICcan also comprise extensible real-time xApps,,coupled with operator intent policy (not shown), and can receive real time data from the network, and allow users and network-AI to enable more granular RAN control, provide greater flexibility and improve RAN efficiency. The RICplatform can support various RAN control functions ranging from basic RAN control functions such as traffic steering and mobility management to the enhanced RAN control functions. RICsupported xApps,,can be centralized at an edge cloud or distributed (e.g., eNB or gNB).

The enhanced RAN neighbor relations with slicing capability (ANR-SC) can provide slice level RAN neighbor visibility on top of a physical ANR relationship to enable enhancements to mobility management optimization via slice and RAN capability-based mobility management for 5G and beyond. For instance, in 5G+, ultra-reliable low latency services have stringent latency requirement to the mobility network. An ANR-SC can provide the low latency service tier slice capability indicator to the cells with such capability.

In alternative embodiments, the RICcan comprise a function that can perform coordination and conflict resolution of the RICfunctions. Based on policies, network state, and/or UE states, the function can dynamically create the composition of the RIC micro-services to meet service needs. The policy can specify the intent of how the traffic should be treated. The function can receive inputs from the real time network data and AI/ML results to establish decisions including trigger conditions (e.g., types of services, network conditions, RF and/or physical locations, UE conditions and capabilities, etc.), and actions (e.g., what signatures RIC micro-services can trigger, and what signatures/actions can have priorities over others, based on the input from the policy). Thus, tailored actions can be provided based on different types of services, slices, locations, and users to prevent a violation of a service level agreement (SLA). For example, an operator (e.g., service provider) can provide a dynamic policy to the RIC, via an A1 interface, regarding how traffic types (e.g., first respondent user versus voice, high speed data, video traffic, large downloads, etc.). For example, the policy operator can upload a slice profile of a URLLC with a desired amount of network resource (e.g., RAN physical resource blocks (PRBs) that can be used to carry user traffic).

Referring now toand, illustrated is an example schematic system block diagram of a radio access network intelligent controller automatic neighbor relationship slicing capability function and an automatic neighbor relationship in one or more embodiments.

depicts the ANR-SCadded to the RICfor facilitating a slice-based function system. The physical cells (e.g., small cells, millimeter wave cells, mid-band, low-band, and the like) can have neighbor relationships that are logged in the ANR tableas depicted by. The ANR-SCcan perform a slicing function on the physical cells to slice them based on their cell type. For example, the ultra-reliable low latency service slice can comprise the physicals cells that facilitate ultra-reliable low latency. Effectively, the physical cellscan be placed on different slices (e.g., the ultra-reliable low latency service slice, the high throughput slice) to support different services as depicted in. The ANR-SCcan comprise the ANR table. The ANR-SCcan be a basic building block for the RICand can view and update the ANR table. The xApps,,can utilize the ANR-SCto perform mobility enhancement functions (e.g., load balancing, handover, proactive mobility handover, etc.) leveraging the ANR tableto determine which physical cell to move the UE. Thus, the ANR-SCcan provide the xApps,,, with context regarding to what layer to move the UE, based on the functionalities of the physical cells on each slice. Once the slice-determination has been made based on the table, the RIC can communicate this to the UEto move the UEa specific slice. Thus, the ANR-SCxApp can provide slice level RAN neighbor visibility to enable enhancements to mobility management optimization via slice and RAN capability based mobility management for 5G and beyond.

The ANR tablecomprises various entries associated with the ANR-SCand the slicing capabilities. In order to enable 5G ANR-SC capability in 5G RAN, the following additional information elements (IEs) can be exchanged to the RICvia an E2/X2 or gNBs/eNBs and added to the RIC NCRT. The “type” field can be added in relation to the 5G NR transmission point (TP) type (e.g., mmW, sub-6, or the like) in the ANR table. The “slice capabilities” field can be added in relation to the 5G NR TP in the ANR table. The slice capabilities can indicate the real-time characteristics the physical cellsprovides (e.g., ultra low latency (URLLC), high bandwidth throughput (H-BW), medium bandwidth throughput (M-BW), massive internet-of-things (MIoT) connectivity, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) support services, voice over new radio (VoNR) support, and the like). The NR direct connectivity field can suggest whether direct connectivity is preferred or whether it is supported at all.

Referring now to, illustrated is an example flow diagram for a method for facilitating radio access neighbor relationships for a 5G network according to one or more embodiments.

At element, the method can comprise receiving, by network equipment comprising a processor, cell data representative of a neighbor relationship between a first network cell and a second network cell. At element, the method can comprise receiving, by the network equipment, first capability data representative of a first capability of the first network cell, and second capability data representative of a second capability of the second network cell. At element, the method can comprise determining, by the network equipment, a difference between the first capability and the second capability. Additionally, based on the difference, at element, the method can comprise splitting, by the network equipment, the first network cell and the second network cell onto a first network slice and a second network slice, respectively. Furthermore, at element, in response to receiving resource request data representative of a resource requested from a user equipment, the method can comprise allocating, by the network equipment, the resource from the first network cell to the user equipment based on the first capability.